It’s not just Panthers that get some love around these parts. TTAC contributors Murilee Martin and Tycho de Feyter have both expressed admiration for the Hongqi CA770 “Red Flag” limousines made by China’s FAW (formerly First Automotive Works) and used as state automobiles from the mid 1960s into the 1980s. A few years back, FAW introduced the massive, 21 ft long Hongqi L9 (aka CA7600L), with styling heavily influenced by the vintage Red Flag limos. Since then, a slightly shorter version, the L7, has been used for foreign heads of state when visiting China. Last year the L7 went on sale to the public for the first time when a Red Flag dealership opened in Beijing’s elite Jinbao shopping district. Now, even a greater number of wealthy Chinese will be able to show up government officials in their mere Audi A6s. At the recent Beijing auto show FAW introduced yet a smaller version of the limousine, the L5, to the retail market and businessman Wang Zhonghua, who owns a chain of furniture malls in China, paid $4.9 million yuan, about 800,000 U.S. dollars, for the first one.

The L5 is still a large car, 5,555 mm (218.7″) long with a 3,435 mm (135.2″) wheelbase. It’s powered by the same 408 hp six liter V12 engine as in the bigger Red Flag cars. The V12 is backed by a six speed automatic transmission. Inside is white leather, aluminum, and wood, along with multiple flatscreens and reclining seats for the buyers, who will likely be riding in the back.

Tycho, who graciously let us use these photos from Car News China, says that the target customer is a patriotic Chinese businessman who is bored with Rolls-Royce Phantoms and Bentley Mulsannes. If you’re one of those folks, or if you want something impressive to have when you’re at your pied a terre in Beijing (there are no export plans at the moment), you can expect to wait about three months for delivery, since the cars are handmade.

The expansion of the Hongqi Red Flag lineup is to be expected. FAW invested over $300 million to overhaul the brand. Since the 2009 revival of the brand, Hongqi has delivered over 500 Red Flag limos to government bodies in China. Whether patriotism will overcome the stigma that domestic brands seem to carry in the retail Chinese market remains to be seen.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS

We don’t care how you Italians do it with your Fiatslers over in Italy, this is America, seems like our President is driven about in a Cadillac as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ intended. God Bless the U.S.A.!

It could be just me but that interior does not look particularly luxurious from those (admittedly low resolution) photos. It was this sort of weird wood(-like?) trim on the dashboard with a few iPads thrown into the front and back. For an $800,000 car, the leather or the carpet does not look particularly inviting either. I have to say, British marques generally do a better job of designing retro luxury cars.

Yahoo auto has much higher resolution photos of a tan interior L5. As far as I can tell, it’s the equal of a Phantom and Mulsanne, and innovative in interior design. I can see Bentley and Rolls Royce copying the central LCD instrument cluster.

I’d post the link, but I’ve had crummy luck cutting and pasting in WordPress.

I agree, some of it is over the top, but it’s at least interesting looking. The sides are a bit too “heavy”, it actually needs another size up in the wheel department to fill the openings or a different style.

Looks like a 50’s Ford cross bred with a Rolls and a current Chrysler 300, with a touch more current BMW/Rolls on the inside. The Chinese, as usual, copied the best(?) aspects of certain things and turned it into something.

Well, once you understand that it’s not a sport sedan or “four door coupe” but a limousine, the design is very decent for the purpose. I’d tone down the tail lights and dump the ’57 Ford headlights, but the rest of it does what a limo is supposed to do. It seems a bit narrow for three across in the rear, assuming a Chinese higher-up would want two of his favorite, er, daughters with him.

This thing just sort of has that vibe of being what Stalin would order if he were still alive… Massive, laden with chrome, and beautifully hand-built, but at the same time slightly menacing. Of course rather than a Packard it’s simply a Lincoln this time around. Even the red flag emblem is very similar to the ones on old Joe’s car if you look it up. For all that, this Chinese homage to a Mark II is definitely more handsome looking than anything Lincoln currently offers…

It conveys authority and power. It’s distinctive enough (are those LED rings in the headlights?) to be recognized immediately in the rearview of lesser auto’s in its way. V12, soft leather, recliners with acres of legroom. As long as the HVAC is flawless it’s perfect.